Mumbai, March 21:  The State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender on Tuesday informed customers of erstwhile associate banks and those of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) that they will have to update their chequebooks on or before March 31. It must be noted that the five erstwhile associate banks and BMB had merged with SBI in April 2017.

This is the third extension in the deadline which was initially September 30 before being pushed back to December 31. SBI announced the new deadline through a tweet and informed that old cheque books of these banks would not be valid from next month.

The old cheque books of associate banks and BMB will not be valid after March 31, 2018, SBI said on its Twitter handle @TheOfficialSBI. However, the earlier deadline for the same was September 30, which was further extended to December 31, 2017.

Cheque books of these six  banks will become invalid from March 31:

  1. Bharatiya Mahila Bank

  2. State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur

  3. State Bank of Hyderabad

  4. State Bank of Mysore

  5. State Bank of Patiala

  6. State Bank of Travancore.

It must be noted that the above banks have been merged with the State Bank of India.

How to get new cheque book:

  1. Customers can apply for the new cheque books through internet banking (onlineSBI.com).

  2. The Bank said customers can also use mobile banking or by visiting ATMs and SBI branches, SBI said. "Apply now and avoid inconvenience," SBI said.

  3. Customers of these banks can exchange their cheque books at their nearest SBI branch.

SBI joined the league of top 50 global banks post the merger of BMB and five erstwhile associate banks, namely, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH).

It must be noted that the SBI had changed names and IFSC codes of nearly 1,300 of its branches after the merger. As per reports by NDTV, the website address after the merger of your bank (SBH/SBP/SBM/SBT/SBBJ) with SBI is https://www.onlinesbi.com, according to SBI's website. The net banking features of associate banks are almost similar to those of SBI. There is no need you to register your mobile number afresh if your bank merged with SBI.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 21, 2018 01:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).